When I was 20, I made what seemed like an insane decision: I dropped out of university in Novosibirsk, Siberia, and moved to Berlin with nothing but determination and terrible German.
I learned the language the hard way – by showing up, working, connecting, and making plenty of mistakes along the way. Eventually, I got into a German university and spent the next decade building a career in EdTech, specializing in UX research and research operations.
At 31, I thought I’d landed my dream job leading research operations at Babbel, the language learning app. For a while, it was everything I wanted. But both the company and I changed, and I realized I was building someone else’s vision when I needed to build my own.
So at 35, I did another “insane” thing: I moved to Spain (again, without speaking the language), founded YesIt’sMe – a voice authentication startup tackling deepfake detection – and launched Pollo Digital to help other founders navigate the messy, beautiful transition from employee to entrepreneur.
So in a nutshell, over 10 years in EdTech taught me how institutions make buying decisions, how to build research systems that scale, and how to turn insights into strategy. I’ve managed research operations, built participant networks, and learned what it takes to align teams around user needs.
Now I help founders and companies:
- Build research-driven strategies that actually impact the business
- Navigate the employee-to-founder transition (because I’m living it)
- Make strategic decisions when the path forward isn’t clear
I also speak and facilitate workshops on research strategy, entrepreneurship, and the immigrant founder experience – because those perspectives matter and aren’t heard enough.
Building a startup while bootstrapping and figuring out if you want to raise money is hard. Learning cybersecurity from scratch in your mid-30s is even harder and I don’t think I will truly “get there”. Being an immigrant founder means constantly translating not just languages, but entire ways of thinking.
I share the messy middle on LinkedIn and in my blog – not because I have it all figured out, but because nobody does, and we should stop pretending otherwise.
Let’s work together if…
You want workshops or speaking that’s honest, practical, and doesn’t BS
You need research strategy that drives real business decisions
You’re thinking about going from employee to founder and want someone who’s been there
It’s a fun ride. You should join me.